Report by EKTA PARISHAD (India)
The amount of 63.883,00 Indian Rupees was raised by the war tax resistance groups from different parts of the world and sent to Ekta Parishad. (Dirk Panhuis from Belgium did come coordinating work.) The recommendations for this support was made at the Washington WTR-PTC Conference by Shri. Arya Bhushan Bhardwaj of Gandhi in Action, Delhi. This amount was divided for three actions. One was a study of the repression of the primitive adivasi group called baigas. A copy of the study report is available. The second part of the quarry was used for providing legal support to the same baiga community in their legal struggle against the forest department, as they were being displaced from their land. The third part of the money was spend for the rehabilitation of released bonded labourers who were under bondage in Madhya Pradesh but were sent back tot Tamil Nadu after release. All these through three projects are important from a humanitarian point also from the out of human rights. We hope that the War Tax Resistance and Peace Tax Movements will appreciate the effective and non-violent way the money was used to support the most deprived sections of the society.
Recommendations for future. We would like to carry on the documentation of human rights violation among the adivasis in order to give them a legal support of protection and also to carry forward the rehabilitation of released bonded labourers. We are looking for resources. It will be great if War Tax Resistance and Peace Tax groups could support us with future financial contributions.
Rajagopal P.V., national convener of Ekta Parishad